Christian terms and information

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A dictionary comparing definitions
used by evangelical Christians & others

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Background:

In 1995, when we started to do literature research for essays on this web site, we found some conservative Protestant web sites, books and other information sources difficult to understand. We found that their writings often assigned meanings to common words and phrases that are different from those with which we were familiar. Common examples were "Christian search engines," "Christian radio stations," and "Christian book stores." We naively expected them to provide a service that reflected the full diversity of Christian beliefs: conservative, mainline, and liberal; Protestant, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, etc. What we generally found were groups that restricted themselves to reflect only the views of fundamentalist and other evangelical denominations.

As we investigated such "hot" religious topics as abortion access, equal rights for gays and lesbians, World religions, Neopagan faith groups, other non-Christian religions, etc., we found that conservative Protestants tended to use definitions for some words which were different from those used by mainline, liberal, Roman Catholic and some other Christians, non-religious folk, scientists, physicians, human rights advocates, etc. As a result, meaningful dialogue between conservative Protestants and others has become almost impossible.

The problem appears to be more widespread that we originally thought. The Roman Catholic Church has noted that differences in definitions of words related to human sexuality are causing "grave moral confusion." They announced plans to publish a "Lexicon of the Family and Life" in 2003-FEB. ₁ It was expected be almost 1,000 pages long and would contain a glossary of 90 words defined from a Roman Catholic perspective. Six years later, there is no indication that the lexicon was ever published.

Topics covered in this section:

	Introduction: Definition of "Christian;" About other religious terms.
	Abortion terms
	Homosexuality and sexual orientation terms Same-sex marriage terms
	Transgender, transsexual and gender identity terms
	Religious terms
	Other terms

Reference used:

1. Jennifer Harper, "Vatican writes 'glossary' on sex terminology," The Washington Times, 2003-JAN-17, at: http://washingtontimes.com/ This report was offline as of 2005-JUL.

Copyright © 2000 to 2009 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 2000-OCT-02
Latest update: 2009-FEB-27
Author: B.A. Robinson

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